Foreign Trade Up 11.3 percent Last Year

China's total trade volume hit 360.7 billion U.S. dollars in 1999, up 11.3 percent over 1998, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Monday.

Export grew 6.1 percent to hit 194.9 billion U.S. dollars, while imports jumped 18.2 percent to register 165.8 billion U.S. dollars.

NBS director Liu Hong told a press conference that, driven by the raising of export tax rebates and other policy measures, the export sector performed much better than expected.

Of the total export, general trade grew 6.6 percent while processing trade increased 6.1 percent, and the foreign trade surplus hit 29.1 billion U.S. dollars, he said.

Exports of machinery and electronic products witnessed strong growth, with their proportion in the entire export raised to 39.5 percent from 36.6 percent in 1998.

In 1999, direct foreign investment in China totaled 40.4 billion U.S. dollars, down 11.4 percent, and the number of directly foreign-funded projects declined.

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